Welcome to “Tuesday Morning”—where people are encouraged to listen to their hearts before making the key decisions of their lives.

 

On March 29, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. On April 3, King addressed a rally where he delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech at Mason Temple, world headquarters for the Church of God in Christ. In the closing line of that speech, King said, “I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

 

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4 Dr. Martin Luther King was shot. At 7:05 the 39-year-old civil rights leader was pronounced dead. America changed that day. This week the Nation honors the memory of the most recognized leader of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. No one doubts the courage he personified.

 

King’s courage was uncommon. That is the subject of this week’s “Tuesday Morning.” It is attached below. Read on when you are ready. If you know of someone who would benefit from reading this week’s missive, forward this to them. Thanks.

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Encourager 

 

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Uncommon Courage

Tom Barnard

 

 never met the man. Our paths did not cross. I remember his name only because it was the name of the character in a folk song made very popular by the Kingston Trio. He was Dr. Tom Dooley—better known as a courageous physician who organized hospitals, medical clinics, and poured out his life in service to the sick and injured of Southeast Asia in the 1950s. He died of cancer in 1961 at the age of 34.

 

In 1954, while serving as a young medical doctor in the U.S. Navy, he was assigned to ship duty aboard the USS Montague, headed for Haiphong, North Vietnam. The Navy’s goal was to aid in the evacuation of 800,000 refugees and civilians being forced to leave North Vietnam for South Vietnam, in accordance with the terms of the 1954 Geneva Peace Treaty that ended the French Indochina War.

 

Following his release from military duty in 1958 Dooley led in the establishment of 17 medical programs in 14 countries—in only three years. His incredible energy and commitment to relieving the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese led to his name becoming a legend at home and around the world. He was honored by U.S. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon.

 

In December, 1960, suffering from the disease that would eventually take his life, Dr. Dooley wrote to the president of Notre Dame, his alma mater. His words reflected the courage he possessed:

 

“Dear Father Hesburgh: They’ve got me down. Flat on the back, with the plaster, sand bags, and hot water bottles. I’ve contrived a way of pumping the bed up a bit so that, with a long reach, I can get to my typewriter…Two things prompt this note to you. The first is that whenever my cancer acts up a bit, and it is certainly ‘acting up’ now, I turn inward. Less do I think of my hospitals around the world, or of the 94 doctors, fund-raisers, and the like. More do I think of one Divine Doctor and my personal fund of grace. It has become pretty definite that the cancer has spread to the lumbar vertebra, accounting for all the back problems over the past two months…Inside and outside the wind blows. But when the time comes, like now, then the storm around me does not matter. The winds within me do not matter. Nothing human or earthly can touch me. A peace gathers in my heart. What seems unpossessable, I can possess. What seems unfathomable, I can fathom. What is unutterable, I can utter. Because I can pray. I can communicate. How do people endure anything on earth if they cannot have God?”

 

C. S. Lewis said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” Courage tests a person’s ability to handle a crisis. I like to think that courage is not something we do, but it is an expression of the person we are. The admonition of Proverbs is clear:

 

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (4:23).

 

We teach our children these truths, and we hope they have listened well. Moral values are not part of the traditional public-school curriculum anymore—particularly values that come from the Bible. But “values” are being taught—informally, by example, from their peers, through the Internet, through the print and non-print media, and through popular singers whose lyrics are far too garbled for grandparents to understand. What ever happened to the ancient wisdom, “Teaching is Mark Hopkins at one end of the log, and a student at the other”? I can almost hear my grandchildren nudge one another and ask, “Who’s Mark Hopkins?” Or, “Do you mean ‘log in’ or ‘log out’?”

 

The fact is that values are being communicated to our children and their children. Many of the values on the market today are being promoted by people who do not share our values. Our children have a choice: they may accept the values that are based on faith and scripture, or the values of others. Courage is one of those values that is more often caught than taught. When I pray for my children and grandchildren, I pray that when they look to me as someone after whom they can model their lives, they will see someone with uncommon courage, not someone who is just common.